Finding Iris Chang: Friendship, Ambition, and the Loss of an Extraordinary Mind

About the Book

Called "a moving bio" by Entertainment Weekly, A Book Sense Pick, and chosen as “a favorite book of 2007” by The Chicago Tribune.

Iris Chang’s mysterious suicide in 2004, at age 36, didn’t seem to make any sense. She had so much to live for; some even wondered if the controversial author of the best-selling Rape of Nanking had been murdered. Seeking to reconcile the suicide with the image of Chang’s “perfect” life, longtime friend Paula Kamen searched her memory, and Chang’s letters and personal archives. Her goal was to fill in the gaps of her friend’s personal transformation --- from “ex-shy person” to world-class speaker and international human rights crusader --- and later decline into mental illness. The result is at once a suspenseful literary investigation of an important writer’s journey and a tribute to a woman who inspired so many around the world.